Flora of New Zealand Series

[Fig. 93: 1, 3–10; Fig. 96: 1, 2, oil-bodies, p. 428]

Plants robust, shoots 1.3–2.1 mm wide, ascending to stiffly erect, isophyllous; first branch underleaf free, transversely inserted; leaves strongly imbricate, usually strongly deflexed; leaf apex coarsely tridentate, typically with accessory armature, the leaf margins often denticulate; underleaves squarrose-reflexed, large and petaliform, the margins broadly recurved, ± lobulate and often sharply toothed.

Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: Auckland Islands, Stewart Island (5 m), South Island (sea level–1310 m), North Island (720–1230 m), Chatham Islands; Australia: Tasmania.

Ecology : On wet grass litter in Chionochloa antarctica, C. pallens, C. rubra, Schoenus pauciflorus tussocklands and in mosaics of scrub and tussockland, often in wet depressions and on tarn margins. Also on humus and under scrub (penalpine in North and South islands, but extending to sea level in the subantarctic islands) of Halocarpus biformis, Dracophyllum longifolium, D. scoparium, Leptospermum scoparium, Myrsine divaricata, Olearia colensoi, O. lyallii and Podocarpus nivalis. Sometimes in upper montane Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides forest. On Stewart Island (Freshwater Landing, track to Mason Bay, 5 m), in mosaic communities of stagnant ponds, Sphagnum bog, open Leptospermum scoparium – Dracophyllum heath to 1–2 m tall and dense communities of Gleichenia dicarpa and Empodisma minus. Associated species are Acrobolbus lophocoleoides, Adelanthus occlusus, Blepharidophyllum vertebrale, Clandarium xiphophyllum, Cuspidatula monodon, Dicranoloma robustum, Gackstroemia alpina, Herbertus oldfieldianus, Kurzia hippuroides, Lepidozia obtusiloba, Riccardia perspicua and Trichotemnoma corrugatum.